Step Inside Love: Varese Compiles Hits of Cilla Black and Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas
The Varese Vintage label is heading back to the days of Merseybeat and the British Invasion for a pair of new releases due on Friday, October 30. Cilla Black’s The Hit Singles and Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas’ All-Time Greatest Hits both draw on the Parlophone Records catalogue, featuring the Fab songbook of Lennon and McCartney and the production of George Martin. Liverpool coat check girl-turned-pop superstar Cilla Black OBE had one of Britain’s most enduring and diverse entertainment careers right up until her unexpected and untimely passing at age 72…
Call Him The Space Cowboy: Steve Miller Band’s Live “Joker” Gets Wide Release From Edsel
The Edsel label has recently continued its association with the catalogue of the Steve Miller Band with the first wide release of 2014’s The Joker – Live in Concert. Miller commented in 2014 of the release, “When several friends and colleagues reminded me that it was the 40th birthday of the Joker album, I smiled–and started playing the whole album’s songs live again. And at the end of the last tour realized we had a great new record that we wanted to share with our fans. We hope you like it as…
WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! “AT LONG LAST LOVE” SOUNDTRACK GIVEAWAY!
CONGRATULATIONS! The following 15 entrants have won a copy of Varese Vintage’s brand-new reissue of the original soundtrack to At Long Last Love on CD! If you entered our contest via Facebook and your name is on the list below, please drop us a line at theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com or a Private Message on Facebook with your name and mailing address! If you entered via email, you don’t have to do anything – your CD will be in the mail soon! Watch this space soon for more exciting giveaways! The winners are: SCOTT BROGAN CHRISTOPHER…
Don’t Fear the Reaper: “Now!” Series Releases a Halloween Volume
We’ve reported on several Christmas reissues being released in the lead-up the yuletide season. And when it comes to holidays throughout the year, Christmas certainly reigns supreme in terms of the quantity of music devoted to it. However, some other holidays and occasions throughout the year have music devoted to them. One of the more popular ones is Halloween which is coming up this weekend. To provide a soundtrack to your Halloween parties or trick-or-treating, Legacy Recordings, in association with Universal, has recently released Now That’s What I Call Halloween! This 18-track…
All Aboard! Ace Collects “London American Label: 1966” and “25 Train Tracks”
Ace is saying “All Aboard!” with a pair of recent releases spotlighting the label’s pursuit of the diverse sounds of music. The London American Label Year by Year: 1966 continues Ace’s long-running survey of the American sides issued on London Records in the U.K. between the 1950s and the 1970s while All Aboard! 25 Train Tracks Calling at All Musical Stations spotlights (you guessed it!) “train songs.” The eleventh volume of Ace’s The London American Label series is here, with 28 selections from the year 1966. With this edition, Ace has now surveyed…
You’ve Got the Touch: Legacy’s 2015 Black Friday RSD Slate includes Presley, Cash, Hendrix, Isley Brothers and “Transformers” Soundtrack
Announcements about this year’s Black Friday Record Store Day event have been trickling out. A couple of days ago we brought you news of Omnivore’s titles and before that, of Real Gone’s Dictators release! Now we can tell you about Legacy’s slate for the day after Thanksgiving. The titles run the gamut in size from 7″ singles to 12″ 2-LP sets, and also range in genre from rock to country to hip-hop. Several soundtracks are being released including a single from the 1960s Batman TV show, the film Garden State and…
Release Round-Up: Week of October 23
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Elvis Costello has compiled a 2-CD companion release to his recently-released, utterly engrossing memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Featuring songs that “offer the deepest emotional connection to the themes and stories in his book,” Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album non-chronologically spans the onetime Angry Young Man and latter-day Renaissance man’s entire recorded discography, from 1977’s My Aim is True to 2013’s Wise Up Ghost, his collaboration album with hip-hop group The Roots. In addition, two…
Let’s Get This Party Rolling: Capitol Readies “Beach Boys’ Party! Uncovered and Unplugged
Following the release of The Beach Boys Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) earlier in the year, Capitol Records was eager to make yet more Beach Boys music available for the 1965 holiday season. The label urged Brian and the Boys into the studio to record Beach Boys’ Party!, an album filled with loose versions of familiar favorites, complete with laughter and background talk. Now, that LP filled with freewheeling good vibrations is getting a surprise 2-CD deluxe, expanded edition to mark its 50th anniversary. Beach Boys’ Party! Uncovered and Unplugged is…
Could It Be Love: Cherry Red Collects Sweet Soul Sounds of Jimmy Helms
With Cherry Red Records’ release of Gonna Make You an Offer: The Complete Cube Recordings 1972-1975, the label is turning the spotlight on the soul man behind the 1973 hit “Gonna Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse.” The Florida-born musician-vocalist released his earliest records on labels including Sue subsidiary Symbol and Oracle Records. At Oracle in 1969-1970, he recorded songs by R.B. Greaves, Dorsey Burnette and Jimmy Webb, and worked with producers including Joe Renzetti. Through the small Boston-based Oracle label, Helms had a brief association with Capitol before decamping to…
Review: Faces, “1970-1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything”
On September 5 of this year, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones reunited publicly for the first time in 22 years as Faces, paying tribute to their fallen comrades Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan with a seven-song set benefiting a prostate cancer charity. The performance came on the heels of the release by Rhino of 1970-1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything… (Rhino R2 550009), a box set-in-miniature collecting all four of Faces’ long players in expanded editions plus a bonus disc of B-sides and one-offs. In total, the…
Thank You Friends: Omnivore Offers Big Star, Neil Finn and Paul Kelly For Record Store Day Black Friday
Omnivore Recordings is looking ahead to this year’s annual Black Friday Record Store Day event on Friday, November 27, with the announcement of two special vinyl releases. The first continues in the tradition of Omnivore’s Big Star releases. The RSD 10-inch EP of Jesus Christ features the original album version of the song recorded for the band’s Third plus the demo version (which first appeared on the acclaimed Keep an Eye on the Sky box set) and five previously unissued tracks, for a total of seven cuts on the EP. “Another Time…
Casting Their Spell: Croydon Municipal Celebrates Halloween, Salutes Girl Groups
With Halloween around the corner, the pre-Beatles pop specialists at Cherry Red’s Croydon Municipal imprint have offered up a collection of spooky musical treats, Songs for Swinging Ghosts, along with a disc of more traditional fare, the girl group salute All About the Girls. The 22 tracks on Songs for Swinging Ghosts, comprising both vocals and instrumentals, are primarily drawn from U.K. releases though a handful of American artists are on hand, too. Compiler Bob Stanley of St. Etienne notes in the booklet that “Britain has taken to the cartoonish aspects of…
A Man Alone: Varese Collects “The Greatest Songs of Rod McKuen” In November
On November 13, Varese Vintage will celebrate a singular career when the label releases Reflections – The Greatest Songs of Rod McKuen. This definitive overview of McKuen’s work as a singer-songwriter features 24 of his most famous compositions including “If You Go Away,” “Jean,” “Seasons in the Sun,” “A Man Alone” and “Love’s Been Good to Me.” Though a self-professed loner who often wrote of isolation and solitude, McKuen had an extraordinary ability in music, poetry and prose to strike a chord with his audiences, to give simple and honestly-expressed voice to everyday…
At Long Last: Original Soundtrack To “At Long Last Love” Comes To CD – AND YOU CAN WIN!
Is it an earthquake or simply a shock? Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock? Last Friday, Varese Vintage had an unexpected treat for fans of Peter Bogdanovich’s cult classic musical comedy with the first-ever CD release of the original RCA Victor soundtrack to At Long Last Love. Bogdanovich, the Oscar-nominated director of films including The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon and What’s Up, Doc intended At Long Last Love to pay homage to Hollywood’s dazzling musical comedies of the 1930s and the charmingly spellbinding films of Ernst Lubitsch. …
Hungry Heart: Bruce Springsteen Expands “The River” In New Box Set
Bruce Springsteen is going down to The River on December 4 when Columbia Records releases The Ties That Bind: The River Collection. This 4-CD/3-DVD or 4-CD/2-BD set promises a treasure trove of previously unreleased material across its 53 audio tracks plus four hours of never-before-seen video footage. Springsteen’s fifth album, The River was released on October 17, 1980. The sprawling double album reached the top of the Billboard 200 chart and No. 2 in the U.K., and yielded the hit single “Hungry Heart” as well as other significant Springsteen compositions including the…
Sweeter Than Ever: Nick Kamen’s Debut, With Madonna Collaboration, Expanded to 2 CDs
Nick Kamen’s career as a singer was a short-lived one, spanning just four LPs between 1987 and 1992. But the former Levi’s model – best known for his role in the denim company’s “Launderette” television advertisement in which he walks into a laundromat and removes his shirt and 501s – scored considerable success in that period including a U.K. Top 5 hit co-written and produced by none other than Madonna. Cherry Red’s Cherry Pop label has recently reissued Nick Kamen, the debut album from the British pop-soul man, in a deluxe 2-CD…
Release Round-Up: Week of October 16
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The dB’s and Friends, Christmas Time Again! (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Omnivore revisits and revises the classic alt-rock Christmas compilation. Producer Chris Stamey has added new performances by Yo La Tengo & Jeff Tweedy, Marshall Crenshaw, Robyn Hitchcock, and Big Star’s Third (featuring Mike Mills of R.E.M. taking lead vocals on Big Star’s “Jesus Christ”) to selected tracks from past editions of the album for a total of 22 tracks! King Crimson, Thrak (CD/DVD-A) (DGM) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) 1995’s Thrak arrives as the…
Hear The Bang: Lost Country-Rock Classic By Late Singer-Songwriter Denny Lile Is Rediscovered
Singer-songwriter Denny Lile was only 21 years old when a newspaper headline proclaimed “Maybe THIS time it’s Denny Lile’s turn,” but he was already a veteran of the music business and its vagaries. A couple of singles came and went with his band Elysian Field on Imperial Records; the same fate befell Soul, Inc. and its handful of singles on the Laurie label. At the time of that headline, Lile was striking out with his own group Otis for the single release of “Hear the Bang.” A self-titled album followed shortly thereafter…
When The Crypt Doors Creak: Disneyland’s “Haunted House” Returns On Vinyl
Walt Disney’s Haunted Mansion didn’t open in Disneyland until 1969, but five years earlier, Disneyland Records invited listeners to visit an equally mysterious property with the release of Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House. Now, the original 1964 LP is back in print on vinyl for the first time in over 30 years – just in time for Halloween. Though exterior construction of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion was completed in 1963, and the attraction was previewed on a 1965 episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, the familiar coterie of grim,…
When The Heart Rules The Mind: Esoteric Reissues, Expands Howe and Hackett’s “GTR”
Esoteric Recordings has recently reissued landmark albums by Genesis’ Anthony Phillips and Tony Banks; now, the Cherry Red imprint has turned its attention to GTR, the lone album from the group formed by Steve Hackett of Genesis and Steve Howe of Yes and Asia. The 1986 Arista release of GTR has been expanded by Esoteric to two CDs with the addition of three bonus tracks and a full-length live concert previously released as part of the King Biscuit Flower Hour series. Yes and Asia manager Brian Lane brought the two guitarists together. …
Great Scott! “Back to the Future” Trilogy Reissued on CD and Vinyl
“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Doc, ah…are you telling me that you built a time machine…out of a DeLorean?” With those words, audiences were in for the ride of a lifetime with Back to the Future, 1985’s hit sci-fi comedy about a teenager who accidentally ends up 30 years in the past and has to ensure his existence by setting up his parents before making it back to his present day. With a winning cast that included Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd as the dynamic duo of young Marty McFly…
Real Gone “Goes Crazy” With December Releases From The Dictators, Nat King Cole, King Curtis, More
Real Gone Music has just announced its December release slate, and the label is closing out 2015 with as dizzyingly eclectic a line-up as ever – from the proto-punk clamor of The Dictators to the velvet vocals of Nat “King” Cole. Real Gone previews its December 4 offerings on Record Store Day – Black Friday, November 27, with a special 10″ EP from The Dictators featuring previously unreleased tracks unavailable anywhere else! Then, the following week comes an expanded edition of the band’s The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! with nine previously unreleased…
This Note’s For You: Neil Young Readies “Bluenote Café” For November Release
The ever-prolific Neil Young is following up his latest studio album The Monsanto Years with another dip into his fabled Archives. Bluenote Café is the title of his Archives Performance Series Volume 11, due in 2-CD and 4-LP editions from Reprise Records on November 13. Bluenote Café takes its name from the horn-powered band which backed Neil on his 1987-1988 tour before and after the April ’88 release of the studio album This Note’s for You (originally credited to Neil Young and the Bluenotes, to the ire of soul great Harold Melvin). …
Release Round-Up: Week of October 9
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up highlighted by the first course of a Christmas feast, plus a trio of deluxe box sets, new albums from veteran artists, and more! The Three Suns, A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas / George Melachrino and His Orchestra, Christmas Joy / John Gary, The John Gary Christmas Album / The Soulful Strings, The Magic of Christmas (Real Gone Music) The Three Suns: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. George Melachrino: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. John Gary: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. The Soulful Strings: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K….
It Must Be Love: Edsel Reissues Five From Singer-Songwriter Labi Siffre
Despite a relatively small catalogue of under ten albums in over forty years, British singer-songwriter Labi Siffre has long been recognized as one of the most original voices in pop. Artists as diverse as Rod Stewart, Madness, Joss Stone and Kenny Rogers have all recorded his songs; hip-hop performers like Kanye West and Eminem have sampled him. Edsel has recently celebrated Siffre’s legacy with a program of five reissues – expanded editions of four of his studio albums plus a new edition of his most recent release, the 1998 (and as of…